Field of Invention
This invention relates to the healthcare field, specifically to a rack and method for the purpose of facilitating a user's ability to assimilate medication-related information.
Description of Prior Art
Often times, users of medications struggle with the issue of understanding how to take them properly. The elderly and those with low literacy, for example, can have problems assimilating the medication-related information that is included on medication labels. Therefore, a user may err in the process of consuming a medication, for example, by taking an incorrect dose of medication, or taking it at the incorrect time of day.
Any such errors, or combination thereof, can cause serious health consequences for users. Accordingly, various inventions have been developed to attempt to address the issue of proper medication consumption.
It is well known that conventional pill boxes are available in various shapes and forms, through many drug stores. Additionally, modified pill boxes can provide an incremental degree of benefit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,371 to Malpass shows a pill box with an inner cover and fill cavity for each type of medication, and time of day. In preparing the device for use, a pharmacist or other person will open the inner cover and fill each cavity with an example of the appropriate dosage of medication corresponding to the time of day during which the medication should be taken. Thus, at the start of each day, the patient or other person will pull the appropriate dose of daily medication out of conventional medication containers, and place it in corresponding cavities to match the example within the inner cover of Malpass' pill box. Although Malpass' invention reduces the possibility of error in the case of certain consistent medications, errors are still possible because, depending on the manufacturer, the same medication may come in different shapes, colors, and sizes, particularly when dealing with generic prescription medications.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,351 to Mangini shows a kit for distributing pharmaceutical products, including a tray of drug containers. The printed matter of Mangini is expressed in conventional pharmacy format: “TAKE ONE TABLET FOUR TIMES A DAY UNTIL ALL TAKEN”. Particularly looking at the section of Mangini's printed matter which is related to dosing time frames, the term “FOUR TIMES A DAY” can be very confusing to users of medications, assuming that Mangini's invention were to be employed by a user instead of a person or entity distributing pharmaceutical products. Moreover, Mangini's invention does nothing to organize medications by dosing time frames. Accordingly, the art taught by Mangini does not facilitate the user's ability to view medication-related information.
In general, there are significant disadvantages associated with currently available pill box art. The user of a currently available pill box may be incapable of properly navigating the medication labels on conventional medication containers in order to match the information on the labels to the information on the pill box. Thus, the user may be unable to stock the pill box properly. In those cases, a pharmacist or other person must undertake the laborious, and therefore relatively inefficient, process of stocking the medications into the numerous compartments that most pillboxes have in common. Confusion and errors during the process of filling conventional pill boxes can lead to potentially serious consequences for patients. Importantly, it is well known that when patients are confused about medications, or when patients experience side effects due to errors related to their medication intake, they are less likely to be compliant.
Conventional medication charts, which list the user's medications as well as medication instructions, help to clarify what medications to take and what medications not to take, but are too abstract for certain users, such as the elderly and those with low literacy. Moreover, a medication chart does nothing to organize the various medication containers that a user may be employing.
Electronic apparatuses of various structures and functions have been developed to address the issue of proper medication consumption. However, these apparatuses are relatively costly and necessitate maintenance.